Charles Della Santina, PhD alumnus 1989, will receive the 2021 Association for Research in Otolaryngology Innovator Award in Clinical Science. Now a professor at Johns Hopkins University, he was recognized for his development of the vestibular prosthesis (vestibular implant), through a remarkable combination of basic, clinical and engineering research.
Nicolas Altemose receives HHMI Hanna Gray Fellowship
PhD candidate Nicolas Altemose, of Professor Aaron Streets’ lab, has been named a Hanna Gray Fellow by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. This prestigious fellowship grants eight full years of funding for exceptional early career scientists. Gray Fellows have the freedom to change their research focus and follow their curiosity for the duration of the award. Nicolas will begin his postdoctoral work with new mentor Gary Karpen, PhD, also at UC Berkeley, this summer.
Congratulations to six new AIMBE Fellows
Congratulations to graduate group faculty Tamara Alliston, Grace O’Connell, Laura Waller, and Duan Xu, and to BioE PhD alumnae Karen Cheung, now a professor at the University of British Columbia, and Amina Qutub, now a professor at the University of Texas, San Antonio! All are new members of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering College of Fellows.
What’s it like to work in the lab of a Berkeley Nobel laureate? Ask a graduate student
BioE graduate student Connor Tsuchida talks about the experience of working in Nobel prize-winning labs.
Peng and Rosenbluth named to 40 Under 40
PhD alumni Lily Peng (2012) and Kate Rosenbluth (2009) have been named to the 2020 Fortune Magazine “40 Under 40”, an annual list of 40 young professionals of exceptional talent and influence in their fields. Peng, now Product Manager at Google Health, aims to bring health care to the masses through the use of artificial intelligence. She has personally designed algorithms including the firm’s diabetes-related eye disease detection program. Rosenbluth, Founder and CEO of Cala Health, has designed an FDA-cleared wrist device that eases hand tremors for the 7 million Americans who suffer from essential tremors.
Kumar and Babbitt elected AAAS Fellows
Berkeley Bioengineering Professor Sanjay Kumar and UCSF Bioengineering & Therapeutic Sciences Professor Emeritus Patricia Babbitt have been elected to the 2020 class of Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Kumar was recognized for his “distinguished contributions to the field of bioengineering, particularly the development of biomaterial and single-cell technologies to investigate mechanobiological signaling in health and disease,” and Babbitt for “distinguished contributions to the field of computational biology and bioinformatics particularly related to protein structure/function and applications to drug target identification and drug design.”
Time’s Best Inventions of 2020: Pivot Bio PROVEN
PROVEN, the world’s first microbial biofertilizer for cereal crops, has been named one of the 100 Best Inventions of 2020 by Time Magazine. Developed by PivotBio, a BioE spinout company founded by Karsten Temme, PhD 2010, the product replaces synthetic solutions with nitrogen-fixing microbes, which capture nitrogen from the air and convert it into a form that plants can use.
BioE alumni deliver 1st rapid at-home COVID019 test approved by FDA
On Tuesday BioE-founded company Lucira’s product became the first rapid, at-home COVID-19 test authorized by the Food and Drug Administration. The test uses their loop-mediated amplification reaction process to detect whether an individual is shedding the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. The company was developing this technology for an at-home influenza test before rapidly pivoting to address COVID-19. Lucira is led by Debkishore Mitra (PhD 2013), who founded the company with John Waldeisen (PhD 2012).
Behind the Scenes of a COVID-19 Lab
In this virtual lab tour, Gokul Ramadoss from the Conklin Lab, and Serah Kang, from the McDevitt Lab – two labs in the Bioengineering Graduate Program – talk about their recent study that highlights the effects of SARS-CoV-2 on the heart.
Prof Ed Chang elected to National Academy of Medicine
Congratulations to UCSF Professor Ed Chang, Jeanne Robertson Distinguished Professor and Joan and Sandy Weill Chair of the Department of Neurological Surgery, elected to the National Academy of Medicine.
11 UCSF Research Specialties Rank in Top 10
UC San Francisco has 11 specialties ranked in the top 10 in U.S. News & World Report’s Best Global Universities 2021 rankings. This year’s rankings, released Oct. 20, highlight UCSF’s continuing strength in health sciences research. UCSF ranked second in Immunology and Neuroscience; third in Cell Biology, Clinical Medicine and Microbiology; fourth in Molecular Biology and Genetics; fifth in Infectious Diseases and Surgery; sixth in Biology and Biochemistry, and Oncology; and 10th in Public, Environmental and Occupational Health.
Alumnus Hickenbotham is Founding Dean of Optometry at Rocky Mountain UHP
Dr Adam Hickenbotham, PhD 2012, has been named the Founding Dean of the new College of Optometry being developed at Rocky Mountain University of Health Professions. Hickenbotham also has a doctorate in optometry from UC Berkeley, more than 17 years of clinical experience, and has been instrumental in developing optometry education at the University of Pikeville and Tusculum University.
Doudna wins Nobel Prize in Chemistry
Jennifer Doudna, Berkeley Professor of Chemistry and Molecular & Cell Biology and faculty member of the Berkeley-UCSF Graduate Program in Bioengineering, won the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, sharing it with colleague Emmanuelle Charpentier for the co-development of CRISPR-Cas9, a genome editing breakthrough that has revolutionized biomedicine!
Five bioengineers are new Siebel Scholars
Congratulations to five Berkeley-based bioengineers named to the 2021 class of Siebel Scholars! Nicolas Altemose is developing microfluidic and molecular tools for studying genome regulation in single cells; Tiffany Chien is building a flexible simulation framework for calcium neuron imaging, simulating the 3D physical sample and the lens-less imaging system; Anjali Gopal is investigating the progression and resistance mechanisms of HER2 isoforms in HER2+ breast cancer via simultaneous single-cell proteoform and RNA sequencing measurements; Marc Lim is studying the physiological transport of three-helix-micelle (3HM) nanocarriers in solid tumors; Zoë Steier has developed totalVI, a computational framework for the joint probabilistic analysis of paired transcriptome and proteome measurements in single cells; and Alison Su is designing and validating measurement tools and workflows for biomedical applications ranging from bench to bedside.
New Insights into How COVID-19 Causes Heart Damage
A new study led by graduate program faculty members Todd McDevitt and Bruce Conklin helps explain how SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, inflicts damage on heart cells. The team’s findings, shared publicly on bioRxiv, show the virus’s unexpected effects on the structure of heart cells in the lab, as well as in heart tissue from COVID-19 patients.
UCSF Hospital among top in the nation
UCSF Health’s Medical Center was rated #8 nationally, #3 in California and #1 in the San Francisco metro area. The hospital ranked among the top 10 hospitals nationwide in 10 specialty areas: cancer; diabetes and endocrinology; geriatrics; nephrology; neurology and neurosurgery; ophthalmology; psychiatry; pulmonology; rheumatology; and urology. In addition, UCSF Medical Center was noted as the Best in the West in diabetes, neurology and neurosurgery, rheumatology and urology.
Vlassakis receives Burroughs Wellcome Fund award
Congratulations to recent BioE PhD Julea Vlassakis, now a postdoctoral scholar in Amy Herr’s lab, one of eight US scholars receiving a 2020 Burroughs Wellcome Fund Career Award at the Scientific Interface. Scholars receive $500,000 over five years to bridge advanced postdoctoral training and the first three years of faculty service. “I am incredibly honored […]
Muller receives McKnight Technological Innovations in Neuroscience Award
UC Berkeley EECS Professor Rikky Muller, member of the graduate program, is one of three scholars to win 2020 McKnight Technological Innovations in Neuroscience Awards, recognizing projects with the ability to fundamentally change the way neuroscience research is conducted. Muller is designing and building a high-speed holographic projector that can project 3D light into the brain at neural speeds, many times faster than current projectors, and so manipulate thousands of optogenetically-controlled neurons with high precision.
Megaphages harbor mini-Cas proteins ideal for gene editing
Professor Jennifer Doudna and BioE PhD student Connor Tsuchida are among the team that discovered CasΦ (Cas-phi) proteins, which have advantages over current genome-editing tools when they must be delivered into cells to manipulate crop genes or cure human disease.
Meet the UC Berkeley scientists using decontamination to tackle COVID-19’s PPE shortage
Bioengineering graduate student Gabriela Lomeli interviewed five scientists who have pivoted their research during COVID-19 to write decontamination guidelines for personal protective equipment.
Seth Shipman named Pew Scholar for Biomedical Research
Seth Shipman, graduate group faculty member and Assistant Professor of Bioengineering & Therapeutic Sciences at UCSF, is one of 22 early-career researchers selected this year to join the Pew Scholars in the Biomedical Sciences. A rare honor, Pew Scholars receive 4 years of funding to invest in foundational research to pursue scientific breakthroughs and advance human health
Alumnus Qi developing gene-targeting tech to beat COVID-19
PhD alumnus Stanley Qi, Assistant Professor of Bioengineering at Stanford, developed a technique called Prophylactic Antiviral CRISPR or PAC-MAN. Working with Lawrence Berkeley Lab, his team has adapted the technique, which uses enzyme Cas13, a virus killer, and a strand of guide RNA, to commands Cas13 to destroy specific nucleotide sequences in the coronavirus’s genome.
Congratulations UCSF Fellowship winners
Congratulations to our students awarded 2020-21 UCSF Graduate Division Fellowships! Jake Bieber – Achievement Award for College Scientists (ARCS) Scholarship Hecong Qin – Fletcher Jones Fellowship Alonso Torres – NIGMS Initiative for Maximizing Student Development (IMSD) Fellowship
Protecting the Heart from COVID-19
Graduate program faculty member Todd McDevitt and collaborators at the Gladstone Institute are investigating how COVID-19 might damage the heart by asking two questions: How susceptible are the cells in the heart to infection by the virus, and what pharmaceuticals could be used to lessen damage to the heart or prevent the virus from infecting heart cells altogether?